Forever
by I.Love.Dick.Grayson
Summary: An evening of fighting crime in Blüdhaven gets out of hand. Angst and character death mixed with romance.


**AN:**

**I'm baaacckkkk!**

**Done with my exams, and I have never done better! I got full marks on EVERYTHINNGGG…well, besides Global History, I got a 90 on that, but that's okay! This was a great school year, I can't believe it's already over :( To top it off, I was awarded Student of the Month for June! I am so happyyyyyy. Now, if only YJ wasn't on hiatus…grrr. Anddd, I have to read this book called **_**Guns, Germs, and Steel **_**for a summer AP History project. I've read much bigger books but it's not that interesting…this is gonna be a fun summer.**

**Despite how happy I am, this is a very sad and angsty piece. Just warning you all now. It was inspired totally by Depths. Which, by the way, was amaaazzzinnggggg...but you all knew that already ;)**

**Hope you enjoy this tear-jerkin' piece :D**

**Not that it matters, but I listened to Sexyback while typing this. Lol, so not the right song for this story.**

**This is AU because Dick is 18 but Bruce doesn't have another Robin yet. And in my mind, Artemis knows Barbara and Dick's names and is really good friends with both of them, as is Wally.**

**Please review!**

**~Zara**

**Warnings: blood, angst, and character death**

* * *

There are way too many. They're hopelessly outnumbered and they know it.

But they don't back down. That's not how they operate.

Batgirl's red hair flies when she ducks to avoid the axe that a goon swings at her. An _axe. _These men are using all sorts of weapons. Axes, guns, clubs, spears, swords, everything.

The sky is dark gray, rain pouring down in sheets and wetting the concrete of the ally they're in.

Nightwing barrels in and drives his elbow into the axe-bearing man's sternum, sending him to the ground.

Dick grins at Barbara, turning away as two men try to jab at him with spears.

It was supposed to be a small drug exchange, near the outskirts of Blüdhaven. Kid Flash and Artemis had had nothing to do, so they had tagged along with Nightwing and Batgirl.

Once they had arrived, it was obvious that this was no _small _drug exchange.

Batgirl punches another thug in the gut as Dick lets out a shout.

"Nice night for it!" he yells over the sounds of fighting and rain.

Barbara mentally rolled her eyes as she heard Wally laugh from where he and Artemis were fighting.

Pausing for a few seconds to breathe, she watches Dick apply a sweep kick to three men, sending them to the wet ground. Almost immediately, another four are in their place, one of them holding a gun.

Barbara throws a batarang, knocking the gun out of the man's hand, and Dick takes advantage of the situation by tossing a knock-out gas pellet in their direction.

And again, as soon as those men are down, more replace them.

Nightwing and Barbara are fighting back-to-back now, moving in perfect synchronization. Barbara ducks again so that Nightwing can flip over her back and kick a man in the head.

Barbara's blue eyes meet Dick's masked ones for a moment.

_There are way too many, _she says in what Wally likes to call 'Bat-speak.'

Dick judo flips two men to the ground at once.

_I know._

They fight for another few minutes before Dick lets out a growl of annoyance.

"This is getting us nowhere!" he yells. "We need to find the drugs!"

Barbara tosses another KO'd man to the ground, straightening up and scanning the vicinity quickly. Quickly, she notices the wooden crates that are stashed in the deepest part of the ally, cloaked in the growing darkness.

"There!" she yells, and as she says it, there are about five thugs that are running to the crates: some of the buyers, obviously.

Nightwing turns to run after them, but a particularly brawny man tackles him.

"KF!" he yells, fighting the man off.

But Wally is faring no better. He's barely visible amidst the group of men trying to take the speedster down.

"Can't get through!" Kid Flash calls back. A man swings a wooden club at him and he yelps.

Artemis has finally run out of arrows and is now using her bow to knock men out. She can't get through either.

With a final yell, Nightwing jabs one of his escrima sticks into the burly man's shoulder socket. The man grunts, backing off.

Swiftly, Nightwing pulls out a wingding and throws it in the direction of the crates. Everyone seems to stop, turning to look at the projectile's measured arc.

The exploding gadget lodges itself into the crate that's right in the middle of the pile and beeps shrilly. The men near the crates shriek and run.

The wingding explodes, sending powdered cocaine down over them like snow, mixing in with the percipitation.

Wally whoops as the men scream in anger. Most of them are making a run for it, seeing no point in fighting any longer.

Barbara grins as the men sprint by, tripping some of them occasionally.

And for a moment, everything is fine. Then-

She hears a loud roar of exasperation and the sound that can only be identified as a sword being unsheathed.

She seems to turn in slow motion.

A blonde man, face twisted in anger, a flash of silver-

And suddenly, Dick is there, gloved hands shoving her to the ground. She falls, hard.

She hears Dick's gasp and the cruel sound of a blade being yanked from flesh.

She looks up to see the blonde man cackling, running away, and his sword is red to the hilt-

And then she sees Nightwing.

Dick's masked eyes are wide and his lips are slightly parted. His hand is pressed to the middle of his torso.

And then he's falling.

"NIGHTWING!" she shrieks, her voice cracking. She pushes herself off of the ground and runs to Dick, catching his body before he hits the ground.

"I got you," she says, hands gripping his upper arms. "I got you…"

She lowers him to the ground and she can feel his body shaking with pain. "I got you," she says again, and she realizes that she's crying.

Gently, she moves his hand off of his torso to see a rip in his black uniform. There's a deep wound under it and blood pours- _pours_ from the sight. Swallowing the bile that rises in her throat, she presses both of her hands down on the wound.

"B-Babs," Dick rasps. His face- _he's so beautiful-_ is contorted in pain and he coughs, a horrible, wet cough, and his lips are speckled with blood. "B-Babs-"

"Don't talk," she commands, kissing his forehead gently. "You- you're gonna be okay, 'Wing."

Dick coughs again, shaking his head. "N-not this time B-Babs…M'sorry."

Letting out a choked noise, she pushes down harder and he moans but she forces herself to ignore it, trying to keep the blood inside of him, trying to stop it-

She hears a strangled yell of rage and forces her eyes up to see Wally throw himself at the man with the sword, fists pummeling him so fast that they're blurs-

"Hey, Babs…" Dick slurs. He raises a trembling hand and shakily wipes the tears off of her face. "Don' cry…Tears..don' look good...on ya..."

She _almost _lets out a choked laugh, because it's _so _like Dick to make a joke no matter what the situation, even if he's-

Taking one of her bloodied hands off of his wound, she uses it to hold Dick's hand against her face. "Nightwing- D-Dick," she sobs. "D-don't leave me…P-please."

"M'sorry," Dick says, and his voice is terribly slurred now. "'ell Bruce m'sorry…and Babs…" He smiles, the smile that she loves so much. His last words come out in a soft whisper.

"Love ya forever…"

And then the whites of his mask are closing and she shrieks. She pushes down on the wound with all of her strength, ignoring the fact that the hand on her face has gone slack because he can't be gone, he can't be-

She doesn't realize that she's screaming until she feels Artemis' arms around her, squeezing her tightly.

"No, no!" she screams. "Nightwing, wake up! Wake up!"

"Barbara," Artemis whispers shakily. "Barbara, shh-"

Wally, done with the blonde man who is now unconscious and bruised, sprints over to them.

He slides on his knees to Dick's head and immediately, he has his hands cupped right underneath the symbol on Nightwing's uniform. He pushes down rhythmically and Barbara struggles but Artemis holds her back.

After a certain amount of pushes, Wally leans down and pinches Dick's nose closed, breathing into his mouth- _she's never even kissed him-_

Wally breathes for his best friend again but she knows it won't work because Dick said so and he was always right, always, he's always right-

And nothing happens. Dick doesn't stir, doesn't cough, doesn't move.

Wally falls back onto his heels, green eyes wide and shocked.

"He- he's dead," he whispers.

Barbara lets out a whimper as she looks at Dick, at the boy she's known since she was nine years old, at her best friend, her everything-

He's lying on his back. His head is turned slightly to the left, towards the three heroes. His ebony hair is matted down with rain and his bangs are falling into his mask. His lips are closed now, tinted with blood. His arms are at his sides, hands limp. The wound on his torso is no longer bleeding but the chest of his uniform in drenched in blood, making it look even darker. One of his knees is bent and he looks for all the world like he's sleeping.

He is so undoubtedly, undeniably gone. Dead.

Dick is gone. Gone gone gone gone gone-

* * *

"_Hi! I'm Barbara Gordon!" she said, waving brightly. The nine-year-old in front of her gave a small smile. _

"_Richard Grayson. But you can call me Dick."_

_The bell for the start of lunch sounded and Barbara jogged over to Dick._

"_So, where're we goin'?" she asked, plopping down beside her best friend on the bench. She tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear._

"_For milkshakes. Last one there buys!" With a laugh, Dick jumped up and ran off._

"_Cheater!" she called, giggling._

"_He is in his room, Miss Gordon."_

_The thirteen-year-old grinned. "Thanks, Alfie!" she said, running up the majestic staircase of Wayne Manor. She stopped outside of his door. _

_"Dick?" she said, knocking. She pushed the door open._

_Dick was sitting underneath his window, holding something. His dark hair fell into his blue eyes. _

_Going over to sit next to him, she realized that he was looking at a circus poster._

"_B-Babs, I…" He can't finish but he doesn't need to. Barbara understands immediately, wrapping her arms around his lithe form._

"_I'm here," she said, and she held him as he cried._

"_I had a fight with Bruce." She looked at the seventeen-year-old with wide eyes._

"_I'm done being Robin, Babs."_

"_Having fun?" Dick murmured as another slow song started._

_Barbara laid her head against his chest. He was wearing a suit with a blue tie that matched his eyes perfectly, making them seem even bluer, if that was possible. Her own silky black dress fluttered as they swayed in time to the music._

"_Lots," she said, shutting her eyes for a moment._

"_You look good, by the way," Dick said, and she looked up at him. "You know, considering how you normally look."_

_She punched him lightly in the arm as he laughed, wrapping his arms around her tighter._

"_Shuddup, Hunk Wonder."_

* * *

With a gasp, Barbara jerks back to the present. She wrenches herself out of Artemis' hold and lurches forward to move closer to Dick.

She reaches out with a shaking hand and touches his face.

He's still warm.

Leaning down so that their foreheads touch, she squeezes her eyes shut and lets herself cry. Lets herself sob.

She can hear Wally and Artemis crying too but she can't bring herself to stop. Tears fall from her face onto his, mingling with the raindrops that are falling from the sky.

She's screaming again and she feels a different pair of arms wrap around her. Wally.

"C-c'mon B-Barb," he sobs, and she seemed to have forgotten that Dick was his best friend too. "C-c'mon-"

"No!" she shrieks as he tries to pull her away.

Jerking out of Wally's grasp too, Barbara falls onto Dick again, wanting to breathe in the smell of him- a tiny hint of the cologne that she loved, peppermint, smoke from Blüdhaven's streets-

But all she can smell is the coppery scent of blood. It's all she can smell. It overwhelms- _why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?-_her.

Forcing herself to quiet down a bit, she presses her lips to his. _Oh god, they're so soft, so sweet, so blissful-_

And after that, she breaks. She sits up and right away, Wally and Artemis are hugging her. They were trying to comfort her between their own tears but all she can hear are three words-

"_Love ya forever…_"

More sobs rip from her as she clutches at Artemis and Wally, rain continuing to pour down on them as they sat on the hard ground and now there were different words going through her mind.

_I love you too…I love you too…_

_Forever._

* * *

**So, how's that for depressing?**

**I almost cried writing it, actually. And then the song Just a Kiss came on from my playlist…that didn't really help.**

**This was my first ever attempt at writing romance!**

**Also, I tried out writing in the present tense, not sure if I did it right though.**

**Pleaseeeeee reveiwwwww!**

**~Zara**


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